Illustration by Grego Anderson Remembering Pete Seeger May 3, 2019 | A By Chip Rowe 1919 Pete is born in Manhattan to Charles Seeger Jr., a Harvard-trained composer with pacifist views, and Constance de Clyver, a concert violinist. He is the youngest of the couple’s three sons. 1920 The family sets out in a Model T ordF hauling a homemade trailer to perform classical music in the rural South. Pete’s mother ends the trip after she stops her toddler at the last moment from walking into a campfire. Photo by Jennifer Lee Blakeslee Pete on his father’s lap while mom plays the violin Remembering 1932 Pete buys a used, four-string (tenor) PETE SEEGER banjo while attending a private high school in Connecticut but eventually olk singer and long- realizes he can’t play folk music on it. Freddie Martin Florence Northcutt time Beacon resi- On a Monday evening, Jan. 27, 2014, Little did I think some 35 years ago, the day Pete died at age 94, I opened a while on a ferryboat trip from Algeci- dent Pete Seeger letter from him containing the chord ras, Spain, across to Morocco, hear- 1936 would have been chart and lyrics for a song we had ing a familiar song coming from the Pete hears the five-string banjo when his 100 years old today worked on together for some time, loudspeaker and singing along with father takes him to the Mountain Dance “Peace Will Prevail.” It was based on a number of passengers who knew and Folk Festival in North Carolina. “I F(May 3), and celebrations and an ancient Irish air. it as well as I did, that I would one discovered there was some good music sing-a-longs are scheduled In late 2013, Pete asked the song circle day live in the same community as in my country that I never heard on the at the Beacon Sloop Club to practice the song’s performer. “We Shall Over- radio,” he recalled. across the country, as well as the release of a box set that civil-rights songs for a citizens’ march come” reached to the far corners of the on the upcoming Martin Luther King world, and its message is as powerful spans his career and includes Jr. Day. While rehearsing the songs with as it was that day during the height of 1938 20 unreleased tracks (see Page the Spring Street Baptist Church choir, the civil-rights movement. Pete, a member of the Young 2). We asked those who knew I realized “Peace Will Prevail” needed a I feel privileged to have known Pete Communist League, grows disillusioned and encountered Pete and his gospel ending, so I wrote Pete. and to have seen him right here in our at Harvard and drops out. His From his hospital room, Pete had city working quietly, consistently and stepmother (his parents had divorced) wife, Toshi, to share stories. penned a note atop the song sheet, diligently to build awareness about our tells him, “Peter, you have a talent for referred to a chord change I had made, beautiful river and protecting our envi- song-leading. I think you should develop The contributions have been it.” He spends the summer traveling with condensed for clarity and space. thanked me for “working on it” and ronment. He has raised our conscious- the Vagabond Puppeteers. encouraged me: “You keep on!” It was ness in his modest, humble way, and our For more photos and memo- classic Pete, giving of his spirit and world is a better place, thanks to Pete. ries, see highlandscurrent.org. energy to others, giving until the end. B | May 3, 2019 The Highlands Current Erin Giunta my late great aunt, Mabel Spinney, to learn in his own way. He took up the In 2013, I found myself in line behind had run a school that he attended job of running the newspaper, and he Pete at the Beacon Natural Market. in Litchfield and that her sister, my felt he had a voice. 1939 After he left the store, he got into his Aunt Milly, had observed, “We never The last time I saw Pete, he was Pete takes a job at the Library of sticker-covered green SUV and sat thought he’d amount to anything.” putting his recyclables at the foot of Congress in the Archive of American there for a while. That’s when I noticed his road. Pete answered his own mail. Folk Song. He meets Woody Guthrie something by my feet: Pete’s car keys! He emptied his own trash. And he when they both play the same benefit. I went outside and said, “I think these amounted to something. are yours, Pete.” “Thank you,” he said. “I thought I was losing my mind.” “Not Linda Richards 1940 yet, Pete. Not yet,” I said. When I was the education director Through a work connection, Pete Later, within a week after Toshi died, I at Clearwater, the nonprofit founded performs on radio programs with Guthrie, let him go ahead of me in line at Rite Aid. by Pete and Toshi, he called the office Josh White, Burl Ives and Lead Belly. The clerk greeted him with a big smile one January afternoon to talk about a and, “Hello, Mr. Seeger!” As he waited tent idea he had for that year’s Great for the prescription to be filled, I said, Hudson River Revival. Pete was always 1941 “I’m so sorry about the loss of Toshi. I thinking about more ways to get more Pete is a founding member with Guthrie know she was a wonderful person.” He people involved in everything. of the Almanac Singers, which releases took my hand and said, “Thank you. As I took notes, Pete asked if I’d like an album, Songs of John Doe, that is She’s the reason I was able to do what I to come over to talk more. “Do you critical of the draft. did. It was all because of her.” have ice skates?” he inquired. “Ummm Photo courtesy Sara Dulaney ... not on me,” I replied. “No problem – Sara Dulaney we have lots of skates here.” 1942 Pete as a boy at the Springhill School So I went over to the Seegers’ and Having been raised listening to After the U.S. enters the war, the The Weavers, I was excited to learn ate dinner with Toshi and Pete and A short time later, I got a postcard Almanac Singers release a new album, about 1981 that they would be sing- their granddaughter, Moraya. After- Dear Mr. President, on which Pete sings: from Pete with a little banjo drawing. ing at something called the Clear- ward, I went over to the wood stove “Now, Mr. President, / We haven’t water Festival. I made my way, solo, He said that Aunt Mabel’s school had and saw a mountain of skates. Each always agreed in the past, I know, / But from Manhattan into the wilds of the been one of the most important expe- winter, Pete would hose down the that ain’t at all important now. / What is Hudson Valley on a drizzly day. riences of his life. circular driveway (at 2 a.m.) to make a important is what we got to do, / We got I felt moved to write fan notes to Pete said that Springhill School rink. Pete put on skates and we skated to lick Mr. Hitler, and until we do, / Other each of them. To Pete, I wrote that (now Forman School) encouraged him Next Page O things can wait.” … Pete is drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to the Pacific. 1943 Pete marries Toshi Ota. Their first son, Peter, dies at age six months while Pete is deployed. The couple will have three more children: Daniel, Mika and Tinya. 1948 Pete returns from the Army and, with three friends, forms The Weavers. 1949 Pete and Toshi, who are living with her parents in Greenwich Village, buy 17 acres at the base of Mount Beacon and build a two-room log cabin. Pete joins the Dutchess Junction Volunteer Fire Department, and quits the Communist Party. “I thought it was pointless,” he said. Pete works on the cabin in Beacon, circa 1950. Photo courtesy Gene Deitch Remembering Pete Seeger May 3, 2019 | C around to the music of steel drums he piped into an outdoor sound system. I remember seeing the moon through the trees that cold evening and think- ing this was one of those nights you cherish for a lifetime. Tom Chapin It began in 1957, near Andover, New Jersey, where we spent every childhood summer. Our Aunt Happy brought out an album called The Weavers at Carn- egie Hall. We were hooked from the clarion bugle call of Pete’s five-string banjo on the first song, “Darlin’ Corey.” To our amazement, Grandma Chapin had a five-string banjo in her Pete with Woody Guthrie, circa 1950 basement. We bought a copy of Pete’s book, How to Play the Five-String 1950 Banjo. I got a cheap steel string guitar, The Weavers top the charts for 13 memorized chords and started using weeks with a cover of Lead Belly’s fingerpicks because Harry was so “Goodnight Irene.” Within a year, the loud on the banjo. At our first public group has sold 4 million records. Pete performance as the Chapin Brothers, tells Time: “It’s not so much fun now.” we played three songs by The Weavers. In 1975 or 1976, I was backstage at Huntington High School on Long 1952 Island with Pete before a bene- fit concert.